Currently Reading or Recommend.

What I'm listening to on iTunes.

February 08, 2008

I had the opportunity to experience the new video tool from Yahoo this afternoon. It's interesting, a bit busy and from first appearances a bit rough around the edges. My own experiences, (note: your mileage may vary,) the chat room worked only part of the time when I entered someone's broadcast. The chat room reminds me of early chat programs when they first came out, like ICQ, with the wild colours and expansive fonts. For me it made for a less than pleasant chat experience. Thankfully there's Skype, and in one session we set up a back channel for text and for a while, voice, chat, to see if we all couldn't make sense of this new tool.

I was unable to find out how to carry on a conversation with anyone in particular in any of the broadcasts I joined. There were times, that I could chat with one or two people who were a part of the broadcast. Other times, we were relegated to writing signs with crayons and paper and holding them up to our camera's for all to see.

Does anyone know if your broadcast is limited to simply the four other video participants that show up on the screen? It occurred to me that the four other video participants on my screen were not necessarily the same folks that were on other participants screens.

In this day and age, I expect more from a company, especially like Yahoo, who brings out a program like this, and then apparently expects those of us in the general public to finish de-bugging the product for them. Overall the product looks good and the idea is sound to a point, and yet, it leave me and others I've spoken with with a less than favourable taste in our mouths. I'll continue to make use of the other video products that are currently available, and take another look at Live in a couple of weeks and see what has transpired.

February 03, 2008

There have been a few new Social Media tools I've been using over the past week or so. Adobe AIR applications, Snitter, twhirl, and and for Pownce. Earlier this week I dumped all of the AIR application/client's as none of them played well with anything on either of my computers. I like the concept of having a stand alone client for Twitter and Pownce and whatever else is in the works, along with certain features that were available, I was spending entirely to much time messing with the program to make it worth my while.
So now it's back to using a web browser, sometimes Firefox and sometimes Flock, until the next generation of AIR applications arrive. I guess this is all a part of being on the bleeding edge of Social Networking technology.

February 10, 2007

As if Wal-Mart didn't have enough problems. The other question relates to who in the IT department of this and other companies, is so short sighted to be Browser and OS specific at the expense of customer service.

December 28, 2006

iChat Can’t Connect? Getting the Dreaded “User Has Declined Your Invitation” or Error -8? Here’s Why!: "Are you one of those people for whom iChat audio and video chatting used to work, but suddenly it has stopped working, for no apparent reason? Are you getting 'user has declined your invitation' or 'communications error' errors, or maybe even the dreaded 'error -8'? Have you changed nothing at all on your end, but suddenly you simply can't audio chat or video chat with some people - or maybe anybody?
Well, you're not alone."

November 22, 2006

This is one of those mornings when I want to throw the TV out the window. The lead story is that the roads and airports will be crowded this morning. Now that’s news! And it’s team coverage everywhere as correspondents stand in airports and on road reporting absolutely nothing there but providing mere atmospherics as they recite meaningless statistics from various agencies: ‘…more Americans than ever are on the move this Thanksgiving…’ They are telling us absolutely nothing we don’t already know. This is journalism?

And then comes Friday, when they will give us the big news: Stores will be crowded.